We remember things. Some days, I don't know whether it's good or bad, but we remember things, and we need to do something to make sense of that, or at least do something.
No more words from me today. Instead, an essay from Brian Doyle:
Kaddish
by Brian Doyle
Kaddish L’anashim
The man who just liked to read the newspaper quietly
The man who loved to preserve tomatoes
The man whose two-year-old son is mortally ill
The man who slept with his two dogs
The man who occasionally vacuumed his lawn
The man who was building a dollhouse for his daughter
The man who was assistant treasurer at his church
The man who helped found a church in New Jersey
The man who was the best probationary fireman ever
The man who built tiny ceramic railroad towns for his daughters
The man who built forty crossbows
The fireman who died with his fireman son
The fireman who died with his fireman brother
The fireman who died with his policeman brother
The fireman who ran in with his fireman brother who survived
The fireman who hugged his fireman brother before entering the tower
The man who had ten children, the youngest an infant
The man who loved Cole Porter
The man who loved Bruce Springsteen
The man who loved Abba
The man who loved The Who
The man who was identified by his Grateful Dead tattoo
The man who loved model trains
The man who loved surfing
The man who loved the Denver Broncos
The man who loved the Detroit Lions
The man who loved his racehorses
The man who loved to run at night
The man who loved to fish for striped bass
The man who fished for bluefish from his lawn
The man who loved his boxer dogs
The man who loved fine red wine
The man who loved Stolichnaya vodka on the rocks
The man who loved skyscrapers
The man who loved birdhouses
The man who loved Les Paul guitars
The man who loved dominos
The man who loved comic books
The man who was rebuilding a 1967 Mustang
The man who rebuilt a 1967 Mustang
The man who was rebuilding a 1948 Studebaker
The man who was rebuilding an MG convertible
The man who restored an old hotel
The man who started a ska band
The man who built harpsichords
The man who had been a model
The man who could ski like the wind
The man who drove a taxi as a hobby
The man who drove blind women to church on Sunday
The man who delivered papers every morning before going to work as a cook
The man who meticulously rotated the socks in his drawer for even use
The man who liked to handicap horseraces
The man who wasn’t a saint by any means according to his mom
The man who was the youngest county treasurer in Missouri history
The man who liked to cook kielbasa
The man who liked to cook pinto beans
The man who liked to cook meatloaf
The man who liked to paint his daughters’ fingernails
The man who made a thousand paper cranes for his wife
The man who made tea for his wife every day
The man who cooked for his blind mother as a child
The man who had his mom’s name tattooed on his arm
The man who had a bulldog tattooed on his arm
The man who had Death Before Shame tattooed on his arm in Gaelic
The man who really wanted to go to Egypt
The man who had been a boxer in Britain
The man who had been a private detective
The man who had been a cricket star in Guyana
The man who had been a basketball star in the army
The man who had been a lacrosse star in Australia
The man who had been a lacrosse star in America
The man who had been a hockey star in Canada
The man who had been a hockey star in America
The man who was an expert surfer
The man who carried a surfboard everywhere
The man who was a quadriplegic and typed with his mouth
The man who played the bagpipes
The man who played the piccolo
The fireman who played the pennywhistle
The man who made tea and toast for his wife every morning
The man who hung out the flag with his daughter every morning
The man who made wine in his basement
The man who knew everything about boats
The man who fixed his son’s toy boat in the basement the night before
The man who liked to quote Federico Fellini about the passion of life
The man who was slowly going blind
The man who bought bagels for everyone all the time
The man who tied fly-fishing flies with his daughter
The man who drew cartoons and caricatures of his friends
The man who went to thirty-five Bruce Springsteen concerts
The man who went to Mass every morning before boarding the train
The man who cared for his kid sister who had cerebral palsy
The man who was a minister for House of God Church Number 1
The man who was an elder at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses
The man who served two kinds of caviar at football tailgates
The man who mounted a telescope on a sewer pipe in his yard
The man who was married in full Scottish regalia
The man who spoke Portuguese at home so his children would know the language
The man who carried an old lifeguard from his wheelchair into the ocean for a last swim
The man who carried a woman and her wheelchair fifty floors to the street
The man who had been a furrier in the old country
The man who was deaf and had been a furrier in the old country
The man who was deaf and knew everyone in town
The man who sat with the girl no one liked in high school
The man who invited a mentally retarded girl to sit at the football player’s table
The man who flew small airplanes on Sunday mornings
The man whose first son was born the day after he died
The man whose first son was born a week after he died
The man whose first son was born two weeks after he died
The man whose son was born three weeks after he died
The man whose daughter announced her engagement two days before he died
The man who wrote a song about noodles with his daughter
The man who cleaned his neighbors’ gutters
The man whose parents were deaf
The man whose parents survived the Holocaust
The man whose identical twin survived
The man who once painted his black dog white
The man who was a professor of geography
The man from Cut Bank, Montana
The man who dressed up like Elvis for his daughters
The man who wanted to coach high school basketball
The man who wanted to be a fly-fishing guide in Montana
The man who shoveled snow for his pregnant neighbor
The man who called his mother every morning at nine sharp
The man who called his father every day after his mother died
The man who called his wife three times a day
The man who called his wife every day after lunch for fourteen years
The man who left notes on the breakfast table every morning for his son
The man who fixed a television transmitter with his shoelaces
The man who coached every basketball player in his town for ten years
The man who was working overtime to save money for his daughter’s birthday
The man who met his wife at a production of Romeo and Juliet
The man whose wife found out she was pregnant after he died
The man who helped his wife down eighty-eight floors and then went back in
The man who boated down the Mekong River
The man who rescued children from a daycare center that morning
The man who rescued twin infants from a burning building
The man who rescued an elderly couple from a burning building
The man who carried a man from a burning building
The man who carried a woman down seventy flights of stairs in the 1993 bombing
The fireman who carried a paralyzed child on a tour of the station house
The man who delivered a baby in an ambulance
The man who carried toys with him for distraught children on his paramedic calls
The man who carried dog biscuits in his pockets everywhere he went
The man whose dog cried all night long for two weeks afterward
The man who mowed the Little League field with his own lawnmower
The man who had just taught his son to whistle
The man who taught his pet bird to whistle
The man who had just taught his daughter to dribble a basketball
The man who had just signed up for his first college class
The man who went to college classes every night
The fireman who was also a substitute teacher at the junior high
The fireman who accidentally burned down his own firehouse
The man who wore photographs of his children on a necklace
The man who did cannonballs when he jumped into the pool
The man who had been homeless for years but finally had a job
The man whose job started the day before
The man whose job started two days before
The man who started his own carpet-cleaning company
The man who grilled ribs in winter while wearing a parka
The man who loved to catch crayfish in his creek
The man who raised racing pigeons
The man who carried his failing wife everywhere in his arms
The man whose police shield is in President Bush’s pocket
Kaddish L’nashim
The woman who loved her two dogs
The woman who loved her three dogs
The woman who loved really strong coffee
The woman who was a firefighter
The woman who loved to ride her bike in the desert
The woman whose job started the day before
The woman whose name meant love and joy in Yoruba
The woman whose sons were named Oz and Elvis
The woman who raised llamas
The woman who taught karate to deaf children
The woman who taught every Sunday at Holy Rosary School
The woman who had piercing hazel eyes
The woman who had a famous giggle
The woman who sang lead soprano at church
The woman who played piano for opera troupes
The woman who loved dancing to the Violent Femmes
The woman who loved everything British
The woman who fought the bully in school
The woman you could count on for anything
The woman who was raised by missionaries in Japan
The woman who had prayed the rosary with the pope
The woman whose son is autistic
The woman whose identical twin survived
The woman who had been homeless
The woman who brought clothes to homeless mothers
The woman who died with her nephew
The woman who died with her brother
The woman who died with her husband and brother
The woman who had toured the country singing with Duke Ellington
The woman who wanted to open a flower shop
The woman who listened with her fullest attention
The woman who fed sparrows every morning in her backyard
The woman who gave her place on the elevator away that morning
The woman who was the craziest chocolate person ever
The woman who called her dad every day
The woman who loved pedicures on Sunday mornings
The woman who had just quit smoking
The woman who first kissed her husband under the twin towers
The woman who died on the 104th floor
The woman who had planned everything about her wedding except the invitations
The woman who wrote forty-five word stories
The woman who wrote her will the day before
The woman who sketched commuters on the train every morning
The woman who was seven months pregnant
The woman who discovered that morning that she was pregnant
Kaddish L’yiladim v’yiladot
The boy who wanted to be an ambulance driver
The girl, age four, flying with her mother
The boy, age three, flying with his parents
The child inside the woman who was seven months pregnant
The children inside mothers who didn’t know of them yet
The children who would have been conceived in years to come
Their children, and their children’s children
May they swim in the sea of the Lord forever.
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